Second CD release in the #OohWow series! This is a re-release of the wonderful compilation Soul of the Machine by Norken – with new music and slightly different tracklist. Ooh wow!

All tracks by Norken & Nyquist
Mastered by Árni Grétar
Artwork by Mason Verger

Music by Norken.
Thanks to Darren McClure for keeping me on the right track.
Recorded in Devon, England
Artwork by Nick Edell

Dedicated to our mothers Georgina Norris and Shirley Edell

Starting with a sound that could be connected with melodic FAX Hard Trance of the old days, Spyra goes deeper into the fields of Ambient-Environmental music. Spyra’s music is often performed with custom-built instruments such as the “Triangle Pads” and the “Elektrolyra”, and consists of diverse sound sculptures (“sound-sheets”).Of course, Spyra is not your typical electronic musician–he was originally a performance artist who was a part of Documenta IX (1992) with his work “Panakustikum”, as well as Documenta X (1997) with his work “My Little Garden of Sounds”, wherein visitors were connected to P.A.S.S. (Portable Ambient Sound System) to perceive the natural environment in a processed way.

This time Laswell and Namlook join forces to produce the soundtrack for a journey through a telepathic mind. Riding through endless soundscapes on Bill’s dubby bass filled with drones and morphing fields in combination with Namlook’s spheres makes you feel at one with the universe. The musical fields are Space Music, Dub, Ambient, Electroacoustic …with beats ..and without beats….for the first time Pete Namlook uses a Trautonium which is prominently featured on the track Trautoniolo. Pete Namlook: “…this instrument seems to work like a -mind to music- interface…it is incredibly interactiveand gives me the possibility to directly form tones and sound without any delay in the musical creation process. …“ The results are sounds that work on your subconsciousness.

The Namlook project always has been a playground for Pete to experiment, for new ways in music. Diving deeper into drones and the nature of acoustic instruments, there is a lot to hear that had not been heard and achieved in this special way before. While the tonality remains open and wide, complete worlds of overtones unfold and create a deep atmosphere. It is a music which is archaic and modern at the same time. Pearl is like listening to the truth hidden in eternal traditions, the essence of sound.

Spyra says: “This the best CD that I´ve ever made!”, and, in fact, we won´t argue about that…although we also like his well-selling FAX-releases “Phonehead”, “Sferics” and the co-production “Virtual Vices” with Pete Namlook… “Etherlands”, which is a reference to the invisible ether and to all people who work in independent radio stations, is the logical continuance of “Sferics”. It is a stocktaking of Spyra´s music that indeed shows the wide range of freedom of movement within his own genuine style: “The Synthesizer Experience” is an 80s-like dance piece, which leads us directly to the time when Spyra started to make electronic music, „Radio Noordzee“ with its dub-like rhythm is most typical of Spyra’s nowadays (live!) music, “Monotonous Stereo” shows that an experiment with a stereo dissection of a paradiddle within a 7/8-pattern range can (although this description might sound very weird) be a bliss to listen to, “Six miles south of Hastings” refers to “6 high minus 12 meters” on Spyr’s “Sferics” CD and in that way to Birth Control and 70ies space rock, and the title piece “Etherlands” is an Odyssey-like journey through the the hidden world of Ether-waves with classical sequence programming, wonderful melodies and tape-echoed experimental soundscapes. The inter- and extermezzi “Birds on the wire” and “Mellotron Etude” are pure melodic chillout tracks that are inspired by the vintage sounds of the famous Mellotron.

Read a review here